


if it ain't broke

by emlof



Category: Naruto
Genre: Established Relationship, Kakashi's Competence Kink, M/M, Road Trips
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-22
Updated: 2019-04-22
Packaged: 2020-01-23 18:25:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18555301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emlof/pseuds/emlof
Summary: “Maybe we’d better just stop the trip here, Tenz—we can probably become homesteaders in the time it’s gonna take Triple A to get here,” Kakashi says, sliding, somehow, even further down in his seat.“Who needs Triple A? I can change a tire, Kakashi, please,” Tenzō sniffs, a little offended. “It would be irresponsible to go on a road trip if I didn’t know how.”“You might not be able to tell, but I’m swooning right now,” Kakashi says, and Tenzō snorts at the sight of him.





	if it ain't broke

They’re somewhere in the middle of Kansas when Tenzō hears a loud bang, followed by a thumping noise coming through the window. 

He’s not the only one – Kakashi, half-asleep in the passenger seat, lifts his head up and asks, “does something sound… weird?” 

The irregular thumping noise persists. Tenzō sighs, puts his hazards on (probably overkill since they haven’t seen another car in hours, but _still_ ) and pulls over.

“I think we’ve got a flat,” he says, and Kakashi groans. 

“Maybe we’d better just stop the trip here, Tenz—we can probably become homesteaders in the time it’s gonna take Triple A to get here,” Kakashi says, sliding, somehow, even further down in his seat. 

“Who needs Triple A? I can change a tire, Kakashi, please,” Tenzō sniffs, a little offended. “It would be irresponsible to go on a road trip if I didn’t know how.” 

“You might not be able to tell, but I’m swooning right now,” Kakashi says, and Tenzō snorts at the sight of him.

“Charming. You’ve got crumbs all over you, just so you know.” 

“I know,” Kakashi says, wiping off his lap as he gets out of the car. “And look, now I don’t. Maybe this wasn’t so bad, after all, it’s nice to stretch my legs.” 

Tenzō comes around the side of the car to join him and winces. “That’s a flat, alright,” he says, hands on hips. 

Kakashi lets out a huff of laughter. “How old are you, fifty? I’ll let you handle this, I guess – better to leave it to the pros, right?” He gives Tenzō a peck on the cheek and starts to slide back into the car. Tenzō grabs his wrist and hauls him back out, ignoring his protests.

“Oh no you don’t – you’re going to learn how to change a tire. What if something happens and I’m not there?” 

Kakashi rolls his eyes, but stands, leaning against the side of the car. 

“Alright, then – bestow your knowledge unto me, o brilliant one,” he says, opening his arms with a dramatic flourish. Tenzō elbows him. 

“Oh, can it, you,” he says with a mock-scowl, popping open the trunk and wrestling with their suitcases in an effort to clear enough space to get at the tire. Kakashi, meanwhile, has gotten distracted. 

“Tenzō,” he says, rummaging through what was previously a _highly organized_ box, “were you expecting we’d have to live through the apocalypse, on this trip?” 

Tenzō just huffs at him. “It never hurts to be prepared for the worst. Would you set these up, please?” 

Kakashi holds one hand out blindly, the other still digging through Tenzō’s very sensible, very carefully curated emergency kit. “I’m just saying, I’m not sure I see the need for the emergency blankets. Or the handwarmers – Tenz, it’s _August._ ”

“I’ll close the trunk on your head if you don’t move,” Tenzō calls back, rolling his hard-won spare tire back up to the side of the car.

Kakashi moves. 

Tenzō enjoys a moment of peace before Kakashi realizes what he’s holding. 

“Are these—we’re in the middle of nowhere and we haven’t seen another car all day, are you seriously making me set up safety reflectors?” At Tenzō’s raised eyebrows he puts his hands up in acquiescence. “Okay, okay, I’m doing this because I love you but also I need you to know that this is ridiculous.” 

Tenzō just hums. “Better safe than sorry, hm? And now if you ever have to do this somewhere more congested, this way you’ll remember the procedure.” 

He can hear Kakashi choke out a laugh from behind the car. “The _procedure_ —what are you, a driver’s ed teacher?” 

Tenzō elects not to respond. It _is_ a little ridiculous, and deep down he knows it, but he’s certainly not about to tell Kakashi that.

When Kakashi comes back around to the side of the car, Tenzō points out the blocks he’s set up at the wheel opposite the flat and shows Kakashi how to loosen the wheel nuts– “a star pattern, see?” – and ignores the way Kakashi nods sagely at his every word because he can tell he’s being made fun of. 

“Now, you’re gonna want to raise the car higher than you think is necessary – this tire is flat, but the new one will have air so it’ll take up more space,” Tenzō says, starting to jack the car up. 

“Wow,” Kakashi says, “it seems like you could be jacking that for a while, huh?”

Tenzō, focused on his task, only half-processes the question. “Yeah, it can sometimes take longer than you’d expect—hey.” The rest of Kakashi’s sentence registers and Tenzō turns to glare at him. “Would you take this seriously? You do it, if you want to be juvenile.”

This time Kakashi doesn’t even bother being subtle. “My, my, Tenzō, you want me to jack it _for_ you? That’s awfully forward, don’t you think?” he asks, smiling wickedly. 

Not for the first time, Tenzō wonders if this trip was a good idea. “Oh, never mind,” he grumbles, scowling and returning to his work as Kakashi cackles behind him.

 

By the time he lowers the spare back to the ground, Tenzō is wondering if maybe it would have been better to let Kakashi wait in the car after all. 

He’s spent most of the time leaned up against the car, arms folded, offering irritating commentary and thinly-veiled innuendo, whistling at Tenzō when he had to strain to loosen one of the tighter nuts, and generally making a nuisance of himself. 

So Tenzō can’t deny he’s relieved when they finally shove the flat back into the trunk, pack up the much-maligned reflectors, and get back on the road.

“Honestly, Kakashi, I’m a little surprised you’ve didn’t know how to do that – isn’t changing a tire a pretty basic life skill?” Tenzō asks as they speed up, rolling down the window when the AC fails to kick in. 

“Did I say I don’t know how?” Kakashi asks breezily, “I don’t think I said that.” 

Tenzō thinks about that for a minute. Then he thinks about how, suddenly, he’d very much like to throttle his traveling partner. 

He says as much. 

“Don’t be mad at _me,”_ Kakashi says. “It was your assumption.” 

Tenzō’s hands tighten on the wheel. “Kakashi,” he says, warning. 

“Whaat,” Kakashi whines. “It’s not my fault you jumped to conclusions. I just didn’t correct you.” 

Tenzō’s eyes come briefly off the road to shoot a glare in Kakashi’s direction.

“You could have _told me,_ ” Tenzō says, exasperated.

Kakashi hums, a self-satisfied smirk creeping across his face. “Well. You seemed so excited to teach me. And you know I can’t resist you when you’re being so _competent_ – how could I correct you?” 

Tenzō can feel himself flushing, and tries to focus on the road to distract himself. 

Unfortunately, when the road is so completely flat, straight, and _empty,_ that doesn’t do much to take his mind off the way Kakashi is leering at him. 

“…and I can’t lie – watching you crawl around in the dirt, using your _strong arms,_ getting all greasy – it’s very alluring, Tenzō, you might have just given me a new—”

“That’s enough,” Tenzō cuts him off, flustered, “I get the idea, you know how to change a tire and you have a _filthy mind_ and you’re _absolutely paying for my dinner_ at our next stop. Now shut up and sleep or something, I have to focus on my driving.” 

Next to him, Kakashi chuckles, a low, rumbling sound. “Oh? Am I… _distracting_ you? Making it hard to focus?” 

“I swear to god I will pull over right now and _leave you here,_ Kakashi, you asshole,” Tenzō says through gritted teeth.

Wisely, Kakashi says nothing. Tenzō can feel the amusement practically radiating off of him, though, and gradually it softens his annoyance. 

They’ve been driving for another fifteen minutes when Tenzō breaks the silence. 

“So,” he says, tentative, “competent mechanics? That’s your new thing?” 

Next to him, Kakashi chokes. “Tenzō—” 

“I mean, I can try out the greaser look if you really want me to but I don’t know if I have the right attitude,” he says, trying to stay deadpan. When he sneaks a glance sideways, Kakashi is looking at him, wide-eyed. 

“You’d have to ride a motorcycle to be a greaser, you know,” Kakashi says, unsure.

“I could be a biker,” Tenzō insists, and the thought of it is too much; his lips twitch upwards and he knows he’s lost the game. “No, no, I take that back, I absolutely couldn’t. It’s so dangerous, Kakashi, did you know they rode them _without helmets?”_

Besides him, Kakashi dissolves into a fit of helpless laughter. “I thought you were serious for a minute, Tenz, I almost passed out,” he wheezes, wiping tears from his eyes.

“ _You_ did? Even looking at a motorcycle gives me anxiety, I mean, come on,” Tenzō says, and it sets Kakashi off all over again.

The road opens up before them. It’s a beautiful day for a drive, for going exactly 75 miles per hour with the windows down and singing along poorly to the radio top hits, and, listening to Kakashi laugh at him from the passenger seat, Tenzō wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.

**Author's Note:**

> written for the prompt “flat tire – they both know how to change a tire but yamato doesn’t know kakashi knows” – thanks rho! i had fun with it. title is the sonny cleveland song. 
> 
> (also i couldn’t figure out how to work it in but tenzō drives one of those ancient green subaru foresters that looks like a refrigerator on wheels but it drives like a dream because he knows how to treat a car RIGHT)


End file.
